Tendre Fleur (Tender Flower), Op. 100 No. 10
Friedrich Burgmüller (1806–1874) · sheet music
- Time 4/4
- Levels 4–9
- Passages 4
Your turn · both hands
Preparing your passage…
Friedrich Burgmüller, German-French romantic (1806–1874). The reading release has 4 passages from this piece at levels 4–9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 9–12 for both hands together.
The hardest stretch is bars 1–8 at level 9.
Your practice path
Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of Tendre Fleur (Tender Flower), Op. 100 No. 10.
- Hands together · bars 9–12 level 4
- The hardest bars · bars 1–8 level 9
How to play Tendre Fleur (Tender Flower), Op. 100 No. 10
- Tempo:Moderato here means an unhurried, even pulse; choose a speed at which every two-note slur still sounds clean and the second note stays light.
- Right hand:Each slurred pair is a drop and a lift: let the first note sink into the key and roll the wrist up on the second so it is short and soft, never poked.
- Left hand:In the opening the left hand answers the right with a falling eighth-note figure in the treble clef; in the middle section it drops to the bass clef for broken chords, so check the clef before you play.
- Hands together:In the A sections the hands mostly take turns, so make each hand's entry continue the line the other one started rather than restarting it.
- Dynamics:The piece starts piano and delicato; save the louder mezzo-forte color for the middle section and let the diminuendo before the return really thin out.
- Fingering:Follow the printed fingering for the rising pairs, since it shifts the hand up the D major chord in small, planned steps.
- Practice:Practice the opening right-hand pairs on a single note first, just drop and lift, then add the pitches once the motion feels relaxed.
- Reading:Read the opening as a broken D major chord going up and the answer as a step-wise descent; seeing those two shapes is faster than reading note by note.
Common mistakes
- Making the detached second note of each pair as loud as the first. Fix: Lift the wrist on the second note so it is quieter and shorter, and say drop-lift aloud as you play.
- Rushing the rising pickups in the middle section. Fix: Count the tied long notes in full eighths before each pickup so the line has room to breathe.
- Missing the clef change when the left hand moves down in the middle section. Fix: Circle the clef changes before you start and say the first left-hand note name aloud at each one.
- Coming back to the opening still slowed down after the rallentando. Fix: Mark the a tempo return and practice the transition so the original pulse snaps back in.
Structure: rounded binary (A–B–A')
Two repeated halves. The first half sets out the delicate opening phrase and closes in D major; the second half moves to a contrasting passage around A major, slows with a marked diminuendo and slight rallentando, and then brings back the opening phrase a tempo to close.
- A · Opening phrase (D major)
- The right hand climbs a D major chord in slurred pairs while the left hand answers with a falling eighth-note figure. The hands then join in a gently falling line to the cadence.
- B · Contrasting middle (A major)
- Long tied notes in the right hand alternate with rising pickups, over a left hand that moves to the bass clef in broken-chord eighths. Watch for G-sharps, short grace notes, and the dim. e poco rall. marking.
- A' · Return (D major)
- The opening phrase returns a tempo, unchanged, and settles back into D major for a quiet ending.
About Tendre Fleur (Tender Flower), Op. 100 No. 10
Tendre fleur (tender flower) is the tenth of the 25 Études faciles et progressives, Op. 100, a set Friedrich Burgmüller published in Paris in 1851. The full French title says the studies were composed and fingered expressly for small hands.
Burgmüller was a German pianist who studied in Kassel with Ludwig Spohr and Moritz Hauptmann and settled in Paris in 1832, where he wrote salon music and teaching pieces. Op. 100 is aimed at early intermediate players; his Op. 105 and Op. 109 studies are meant for more advanced students.
In the Litolff-based edition the piece is marked Moderato and delicato, and its opening right hand is built from two-note slurs whose second note is lightly detached. That small gesture, repeated throughout, is what the study trains: a quiet, controlled lift of the hand.
- Piano Street lists this study under the English title The Tender Blossom.
- The Op. 100 set was registered in the Bibliographie de la France on 27 December 1851, according to IMSLP.
- Burgmüller also wrote ballet music: his Peasant Pas de Deux was added to Adolphe Adam's Giselle for its 1841 premiere.
Why the first passage is level 4
That passage is level 4 rather than 3 because a hand plays several notes at once, its key signature has 2 sharps or flats, it reaches 2 ledger lines, it needs both hands at once.
The opening right hand outlines a D major chord in slurred pairs, so read it as a chord shape climbing upward; the left-hand answers repeat, letting you read them once and recognize them each time.
Questions about Tendre Fleur (Tender Flower), Op. 100 No. 10
- How hard is Tendre Fleur (Tender Flower), Op. 100 No. 10 to play?
- Its passages grade from level 4 to level 9 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 1–8 at level 9.
- Is there an easy part of Tendre Fleur (Tender Flower), Op. 100 No. 10 for beginners?
- Its easiest passage is level 4, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 9–12 for both hands together, the level-4 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 4 because a hand plays several notes at once and its key signature has 2 sharps or flats.
- What key and time signature is Tendre Fleur (Tender Flower), Op. 100 No. 10 in?
- The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
- Who composed Tendre Fleur (Tender Flower), Op. 100 No. 10?
- Friedrich Burgmüller, German-French romantic (1806–1874). Tendre fleur (tender flower) is the tenth of the 25 Études faciles et progressives, Op.
- Can I practice Tendre Fleur (Tender Flower), Op. 100 No. 10 online for free?
- Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 4 graded passages from Tendre Fleur (Tender Flower), Op. 100 No. 10 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
- What does Tendre fleur mean?
- It is French for tender flower; Piano Street's English listing calls it The Tender Blossom.
- Which Burgmüller studies come before and after Tendre fleur?
- In Op. 100 it follows La chasse (No. 9) and comes before La bergeronnette (No. 11).
- Is Tendre fleur in the public domain?
- Yes. Burgmüller died in 1874 and the set was published in 1851; free public-domain editions are available from IMSLP and the Mutopia Project.
Every passage, easiest first
The reading release grades 4 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:
- Level 4
- bars 9–12 both hands
- Level 8
- bars 9–16 both hands
- Level 9
- bars 1–8 both hands · bars 17–24 both hands
More pieces to sight-read
Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (mutopia-ly), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.